When our old cordless phones started to crackle, hiss and generally malfunction in such a way as to make calling virtually impossible, we set off into town to purchase a new set! Having previously gone for a "cheap but cheerful" phone that we then found did not really last much past its 12 month warranty, I was keen to spend a little bit extra to get a brand that I trusted and felt would last. I didn't really have one specific brand name in mind, but when I saw this particular phone on offer in our local Tesco, I did feel confident that the Panasonic name was one I could trust, having previously owned electrical items manufactured by them and been very pleased with their performance and reliability.


We have the 2 handset option of this particular phone, but in all other ways it is identical to the one pictured, so I felt it would be pointless to request a new category for the 2 handset option, as really they are the same just with a couple of extra handsets thrown in! We opted for two handsets as we live in an average 3 bedroom house and felt that one phone downstairs and another in our bedroom would be plenty...I do have a daughter on the verge of becoming a teenager so I suppose at some point she may want an extension for herself, but extra handsets are available seperately (the code for these is Panasonic KX-TGA651E), and the base unit can support up to 6 handsets, so we thought that for now 2 handsets would be ample and we could always purchase an extra one in the future should we feel the need to.


-Phone System Setup.-

The first thing to do to setup these phones is to insert 2xAAA Nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) rechargable batteries (supplied with the phones) into each handset, plug in the base unit and satellite unit to power points, and leave the phones to charge. I am not the most technically gifted of people, but even I found putting in the batteries very straightforward as they only fit in one way, and it is pretty obvious when you open the battery compartment on the phone which way this would be! The battery compartment is a simple slide affair, so there was no need to go hunting for an appropriately sized screwdriver to enable me to put the batteries in!

The phones took about 6 hours to charge if I remember rightly, although the instruction manual says 7. Having said that, you don't need to have the base unit connected to your phoneline to charge the phones, so you can leave your old phone active while you charge the new ones, to avoid being incommunicado whilst they charge!

One thing to note is that you will need either a power point near to your existing telephone line socket, or an extension lead from either a socket or the phone connection point, as the base unit requires both a power outlet and a telephone connection point, and only has approximately 2m of cable from the adaptor that plugs into the electrical socket to the base unit. The satellite unit requires a power point but not a telephone connection point.

If you have broadband, you will also need a DSL/ADSL filter as well, which is not supplied with the phones.


-Phone System Features.-

This set has a pretty comprehensive set of features, and to be honest I would be hard pressed to think of something I may want from a home phone which this set doesn't have. I won't go through every feature in detail, but some I think warrant giving a little bit of extra information;

- Handset Phonebook.
The built in memory on the handset allows you to store up to 100 names and numbers. This is per handset, rather than for the system, so in theory you could program different numbers into different handsets to be used by different people in the household, or for example for work numbers and social numbers. A name in the phonebook can be up to 15 characters long (including spaces or ampersands etc). I have found this to be a perfectly adequate amount, although have had to abbreviate or use nicknames on some entries. The only minor niggle is that each "slot" only accommodates one number, so if you want to put in someone's landline and their mobile number, these would have to be done as two seperate entries. Phonebook entries can easily be copied between handsets, so once you have entered a name and number, you don't have to keep doing it for all the seperate handsets! You can choose to copy individual entries, or the complete phonebook from one handset to another.
- Answering System
The base unit incorporates an answer machine, which has approximately 20 minutes of storage time for messages. The answer machine is easily turned on/off by pressing a button on the base unit. It is also easy to record your own answerphone message that callers will hear, although a preset message pre-programmed into the unit is also available. You can select the amount of rings the phone will receive before the answer machine kicks in, any number between 2 and 7. If a message has been left, a light on the base unit flashes, and an icon alongside a number (representing the number of messages on the answer service) appears on the handsets. Listening to the messages is again a simple one button press on the base unit, and messages can be erased individually or as a whole group by pressing a button singly or twice on the base unit. It is very simple to operate this function, with few steps to complete any desired function, and all the buttons are clearly labelled in a way that is instantly recognisable (e.g. the play button features a right facing arrow, that I am pretty sure everyone would be familiar with!)
- Alarm
The system features an alarm which can be set for a different time on each handset. Alarms can be set to repeat once or daily. An active alarm "pings" for 3 minutes before stopping. The only minor niggle with the alarm system is that the alarm does not go off if that particular handset is in use, although using a different handset will not affect the alarm activity. I haven't used the alarm beyone playing with it to see how it worked, but I do think it would be sufficient to use as a main alarm if you wanted to.
- Remote Operation
If you want to retrieve messages from your phone when you are away, this can be done by setting up a 3 digit pin code on your handset. You can also delete messages remotely, which would be handy if you were on holiday as it means you could free up space by deleting unwanted messages from the machine, to enable it to continue taking messages until you returned home. I haven't yet used this feature but have no reason to think it wouldn't be as straightforward to use as the other operations on this phone.
- Eco System
The phone system allows you to choose to put it into "Eco mode" with a simple one button press. Eco mode will save power by reducing the amount of energy the system uses. This has worked perfectly well for me, both in the house and garden, but the instruction leaflet does warn that Eco mode may result in poor quality calls if the handsets are too far away from the base unit when a call is being made/received. I leave my system on Eco mode all the time, and have yet to find it causes a problem.

As well as these features, the system has an intercom function, handset locator, call transfer, conference calling (letting everyone on different handsets be part of one conversation at once), caller ID and barring (although you must be subscribed to caller ID with your telecom provider for this to work), caller list, speakerphone, and the usual display, ringer, time set etc functions that would be expected from a modern phone.


-Using The Phone.-

I have found the handsets to be well designed, comfortable to hold in the hand and the buttons big and clear enough to suit most people's requirements. They are durable (having survived being dropped down the stairs by the kids, and even dropped into a bowl of washing up on one occasion!)


As mentioned earlier in this review, all the functions seem simple to operate, even for someone like me who isn't always the quickest at picking up how to operate technical things! I have also found that I quickly learnt any of the few "sequence" button presses required to operate the system, unlike other products before where long amounts of key presses often left me confused and frustrated! The menus are very simple to understand, well laid out and logical. The use of icons in liberal amounts (and easy to recognise ones at that) adds to the simplicity of using this phone system.


Our handsets often get left away from the base/satellite units, and I have yet to have a problem with the batteries running out, despite myself and my sister/mother being fairly chatty people who make frequent use of the "hang up after 1 hour and redial to keep it free" options on our telecom plans! The leaflet supplied with the system informs me that the batteries should last for 18 hours with continuous usage, and 170 hours when in standby mode, so I think even the chattiest of people who forget to replace the phones on the charger stations would be challenged to run these batteries down in one go!


The base unit and satellite units are small enough to be unobtrusive and easily placed on a shelf or small table, yet still chunky enough to survive being knocked from said surfaces by the kids (!), with buttons on the base unit that are large and easy to operate.


The only small niggles I have with this system really are the fact that you can't put multiple numbers for the same person under one title in the phonebook, and that I found the cable from the base unit to the plug socket a bit on the stingy side, meaning I had to make use of an extension to make it reach the telephone socket as well as a plug socket. I don't think I can knock a whole star off for those though really, so will still rate this product as 5 star!


Overall I am really very happy with this phone system, and wouldn't hesitate in recommending it to others.